Hon. Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion: THAT, acknowledging that the Kenya Police play a very important role in providing assistance to the public when in need, maintenance of law and order, preservation of peace, protection of life and property, investigation of crimes, collection of criminal intelligence, prevention and deduction of crime, apprehension of offenders, enforcement of laws and regulations with which it is charged among other roles as provided for under Section 24 of the National Police Service Act; concerned that many police officers across the country, especially those working in northern Kenya and other high risk and hardship areas continue to work under very difficult environment characterised by among others, inadequate and inhabitable, deplorable and congested living quarters, insufficient tools for work and poor salaries and allowances; further concerned that the difficult working environment for the police officers has often led to frustration, demotivation and occupational stress among officers with many of them exiting the force in search of other jobs; this House urges the National Police Service Commission and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to provide salary The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, from the outset, I wish to state that the Kenya Police is one of the best trained professional forces in the world. However, the officers remain the worst remunerated and housed in worst conditions in the world. Over the years, the Kenya Government has proposed reforms, especially reforms that were initiated in 2011 which envisaged provision of adequate and decent housing, improved welfare and salaries for police officers. These policy documents have remained on paper. We know that currently, a constable earns below Kshs20,000. That is not a salary. It is a joke. Police officers are human beings like other people. They have needs. They pay school fees for their children and feed their parents. Their salary cannot cater for their basic needs. If you walk into any police station in areas in northern Kenya or even in many parts of the country, you will see prison officers living in very deplorable housing units like corrugated iron sheet huts. This has led to serious stress among the officers. We have seen officers committing suicide or killing each other. This is as a result of the living conditions in those quarters.

In northern Kenya, we have serious security issues because of terror groups. Officers are often deployed in the worst hardship situations. As a result of lack of incentives, the only option they have is to leave the force. Most recently, the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) came up with some purported reforms in order to motivate police officers. Those reforms are below par because an officer who was earning Kshs17,800 was recommended to earn Kshs18,760. As a result of this, I request that the NPSC and the SRC carry out an audit to ascertain the money that the Government has been setting aside to put up decent housing for police officers.

Over the years, the police have been labelled the most corrupt arm of the Government in Kenya. We have complained, as members of the public over time. This is a result of an officer earning Kshs18,000 yet we expect him to be incorrupt and to serve this country diligently. That is not feasible. As a country, we have allowed corruption to thrive because we are not providing adequate working environment and right remuneration for police officers.

The issue of academic and career progression has been abused. Most recently, graduates have joined the force. For the first 10 to 15 years, we have been having graduate engineers joining the police force because they want to serve their country. It is not because they could not get any other job, but academic levels and skills have not been a priority for people working in the police force. A fortnight ago, on 15th March 2018, a circular was issued by the NPSC stating that graduate officers and those who got disabled while serving should not be given special allowances. This is causing a lot of jitters in the police force. Doctors, teachers, and other professionals are seen picketing or going on strike just because of lack of fulfilment of their needs. Police officers or armed personnel are not allowed to picket, according to the Constitution. They are not allowed to go on strike to agitate for their rights. It is only through this House that the rights of the officers, who are our brothers, sons, fathers, sisters and mothers, can be addressed. In progressive countries, they have progressive, happy and motivated police force. If Kenya is to realise Vision 2030, we must have a motivated police force. A motivated police force will lead to a secure nation. It is, therefore, my prayer that this House urges the NPSC and the SRC to take into account the problems that face these officers. If we are to progress as a nation, then we must remunerate the officers well, house them decently and provide the tools and logistical equipment that they require. I beg to move and request the Member for Turkana, Hon. Ali, to second. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you Hon. Deputy Speaker for allowing me to second this Motion. First, I wish to thank the people of Turkana East for electing me to represent them in this House. I have been in the National Police Service Commission for 20 years before I joined this House. It is the people of Turkana East who thought it better for me to come here. They knew the suffering police officers are going through. My constituency is one of those which lose a lot of officers. When you hear of Kasarani where 29 officers were killed, it is in my constituency. When you hear of the Suguta Valley, where around 40 officers were killed, it is in my constituency. The NPSC recruits officers from the entire country. It recruits from each constituency. When officers die in the line of duty, it is our constituents that usually cry. As politicians, we always rush to the burials and condemn the Inspector-General of Police (IG). What we have never done or realised is that it is not the IG who legislates. It is not the IG who allocates money to the NPSC. If you see how these officers are housed, it is bad. I happened to be an in-charge in a station called Khorof Harar. In Khorof Harar, officers live in tinned houses. They call them unihuts. You cannot stay in these houses during daytime. They are too hot. At night, they are too cold. They usually house snakes and animals at night. One day when I went to visit the cells, I happened to see a prisoner just lying down and there was a snake nearby. I was scared. I knew the next thing they would not say was that the police had not prepared a good cell for these people. They would have sacked me immediately because they have said I have put a person there and he has been bitten by a snake. These officers do not choose where to go. They are not represented even in the NPSC. The IG and his deputies are the ones who represent police officers there. The NPSC uses all its time concentrating in investigating how a police officer acquired a bicycle. How police officers live is never considered. The NPSC has never considered how children of these officers go to school. Police officers started going back to school to get degrees for them to be renumerated well. Now, they are even condemned for that. The NPSC is saying that one will not be given that extra allowance even with a degree. How will you motivate the officers to go to school? The NPSC is a commission provided in the Constitution to defend police officers and to see how they their living conditions can be improved. They are saying that if you go to the field and you are shot at or disabled, you will not be exempted from paying taxes. These officers do not go to the field to protect their property. They go there to protect the lives of Kenyans. We sometimes say that police officers are brutal, but these people are frustrated. That is why you see many suicide cases in the police force. When a police officer goes to his house which he is sharing with his colleague and is frustrated, a small quarrel prompts him to kill the other or himself. This House should wake up and defend our police officers. They cannot demonstrate like other people. In the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), workers are represented from the bottom. You will find magistrates are represented in the JSC. Judges of the High Court and the Court of Appeal (CoA) are also represented. Officers that work in hardship areas like North Eastern are junior officers. Nobody cares about them. They are not even paid their hardship allowances. They are not even paid their night out allowance when they go outside. These The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

officers trek for kilometres without water. They go to the trenches of the Suguta Valley where even breathing is a problem. They do all these things in the name of defending the Constitution, protecting lives and property of Kenyans and not theirs. Above all, we must understand that these are Kenyan citizens. These are our brothers. These are our sisters. We all cry when they die. This House has a duty to protect them. This is the only place where police officers can get protection because they follow orders outside there. When you are told “move”, you move. When you are told to go to a place, even if you know it is risky and you might not come back, you just go there because it is an order. I request this House to support this Motion so that these Kenyans can send their children to school. What they are paid cannot take their children to school. It cannot even sustain them. They are away from their families most of the time because they cannot go with their families to these places. They are forced to rent houses outside their stations. The house allowance they are given cannot even rent a house. With the few remarks, I second. Thank you.

Hon. Deputy Speaker

You are actually seconding. Having seconded and having heard from the donkey’s own mouth, I mean the horse’s mouth, I proceed to propose the Question.

(Question proposed)

Hon. Deputy Speaker

Now that two Members have spoken, even if they were proposing and seconding, I will give the first shot to Hon. Kubai Iringo who is second on the list, for purposes of balancing. The first person on the list is actually from the left, so I will come back to him shortly.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity to have the first shot on this Motion after the proposer and the seconder. This Motion is not new in this Parliament. In the last Parliament, we had a similar Motion and I do not know if it saw the light of day. I pray that as we discuss or debate this Motion, it will not be lost in the archives of the people who should enact or put them into effect. The police force has been the talk of town in this country both positively and negatively in many aspects. This is because of the way they have been conducting their business from when they are recruited to when they are taken to serve the public in various parts of this county. The force has been bedevilled with issues of corruption from the word go. Any time there is recruitment of police officers, the whole country gets full with brokers running left, right and centre trying to solicit money from parents who are desperately in need of having their children enlisted in the force. At the end of the day, many people lose their money and therefore, once one becomes a police officer, he is a product of corruption from the word go. Even before you go to Kiganjo for training, you are already corrupt because you corrupted your way to become a police officer. That is why you find most police officers are not people who are called for the job or were not willing to go there. It is because they had a relative who had enough money to get them there. Once you find that they are not doing their work properly, it was not their calling, they were pushed there. The other angle to look at corruption in the force is, when new officers assume duty, they meet their colleagues who have already marred the profession. They then join the trail and the cycle continues. The police force is the easiest employer these days because the Government assimilates youth every year. After every passing out parade, another lot of about 10,000 youth is recruited. After you go for training, you are immediately employed. That is why everybody is rushing The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

there. People who are qualified for other professions do not want to go there because if you train as a teacher, upon graduation, you take years before you are employed. Those who go to any technical institute or university for degrees take years before they get employed. This is an easy way to employment and that is why many youths are rushing there. The country should be very careful in handling these youths in the force in terms of remuneration, housing and job distribution. You find that a police officer who does not know somebody senior at the force is deployed in Mandera almost indefinitely or he is taken to the worst corners of this country and are not rotated to any other place. Those who have close relatives in the force are brought here in Nairobi at the Central Police Station or to police stations near their homes so that they can live comfortably. The rest who do not know anybody, those who join the force from poor backgrounds, are taken to a place where they are vulnerable to diseases, or where their lives are at risk from Al Shabaab attacks. Nobody will ever bother to take you out, unless you use money to get out of that place. Therefore, the force should develop a program where if you are stationed in a remote place for two or three years, you should be due for a transfer without even requesting for it. I have constituents who have been languishing in some police stations in North Eastern. One has been there for fifteen years and has even forgotten his home and his children are wondering when their father will ever come back. Nobody sees that. There are those who if you transfer them today, after a week, you will see them back because somebody brought them back. Therefore, these disparities and the nepotism which is being experienced in the force is demoralising most police officers. I now want to speak to this Motion which is seeking to establish good housing and remuneration. We are talking of remuneration, but the other week we heard that those who were already going to school to improve their qualifications to get better remuneration have had their salaries cut already. The other day I was watching television and I found out that there is an officer who receives Kshs161 as a monthly pay. This person has been in the office for 30 days, has a family, needs to eat, has children in school and many other requirements. He has also taken loans to do other things. Then, considering all those obligations, he or she is told that the salary for the month is Kshs161! How do you expect that officer to work prudently? How do you expect that officer to be sober enough to serve the public? Since he has a lethal weapon in his hand, at any little provocation, he will just point it at you, himself or the crowd. We have to be careful when making these decisions. There are police officers who live in a uni-hut like my brother has said. I am sure they can hardly sleep at night because of the cold. They cannot stay there during the day because of the heat. Where will they stay yet they are not amphibians? How do you work? How do you become a bodyguard of a Member of Parliament or a Cabinet Secretary when you sleep in the cold while your master sleeps in warm blankets? Do you expect them to be very comfortable protecting you? If danger comes, he will duck and you will die. We have to take care of them because they are human beings. I have put up several police houses in various police stations and police posts in my constituency. Before the construction of a house is complete, an officer of the rank of inspector would rush to book its occupation because the house is good. The simple constables for whom the houses have been constructed are thrown out and taken back to the uni- huts. That is when they turn against their leaders. It is high time we looked at this issue prudently. Imagine somebody writing a circular that somebody who has been maimed in the line of duty will not be compensated. There are officers who are shot at and injured and so they are incapable of performing their duties. They are then told they will not be paid any allowances and yet they will be paying taxes and they The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

might be retired. It is immoral and shameful. Even if you are not as active as you were when you were employed, it is only unfortunate that you met the predicament while on duty to the nation! You should be taken care of and the last person to be abandoned. Therefore, the police force needs total overhaul. The Kavuludi team is not helping this nation. They are messing and they are not doing good to this country. They should sit down and look at this force holistically so that it is just not about the force in North Eastern and other hardship areas. The reforms required include aspects such as human resource, housing, medical and so on. That is the time we shall be able to bring sanity in the police force and the officers shall be less corrupt and less suicidal. The reforms will help reduce the ills bedevilling the police force. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I support this Motion and I hope it will see the light of the day unlike other Motions that have been brought to this House and I do not know how far they have gone. I support.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to appreciate this Motion. In my Constituency, Lurambi in Kakamega, we had an issue where a child was murdered. That was not the doing of the police, but I saw what the reaction was. I found myself on the side of the police even though as a politician, naturally, I should be on the side of the people. Police are generally condemned. For every bad thing, the blame ends with them. Our policemen live in deplorable conditions. The policemen and police women are human beings. They are just like any other Kenyans. They deserve a better place and dignity. When I went to visit the security guard assigned to me in his house, I found that he lives with another family together with his wife and children and they are literally separated by a curtain. These are young families. You can imagine the conditions they live in when they want to have their own wonderful time as a family. There is no wall that separates them. Even animals surely have a better place in the jungle. I support this Motion fully because we know that in every group of people, we may have a few individuals who are not good. Therefore, we cannot, in a blanket, condemn the police service and say that police officers are not good people because maybe they have thrown teargas at us at one point or another. We cannot say that they do not deserve anything better. In this world and this country, if we did not have police officers serving us 24/7, what would be? Where would our country be? One of the reasons we have so much corruption within the service and some officers picking a little money and going after old mamas who are doing the illicit brew business is because the amounts on their pay slips cannot sustain them. That is why we see rampant corruption. They have to do all these acts because they want to make up. They also want to have a life. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, police officers who serve this country are parents. They have children in school. When the Government talks about free education, we as Members of Parliament who are parents realise that it is not actually free education. There is money paid. When you look at a pay slip of a police officer, you wonder where they get money to send their children to school so that their kids can also have a future. That is why I stand on the Floor of this House to say, from a practical point of view, having looked at how police officers live, and having relatives who are serving in the service, this House needs to support this Motion so that we can have our police officers living in good conditions. This is not only happening in North Eastern, but I have also seen it in Kakamega when it rains. In fact, on Monday, I was talking to the Administration Police Sub-County Commander of Kakamega Central and he told me that his The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

house and those of other officers were leaking terribly. It was literally raining in those houses. I also spoke to the County Commander of Kakamega County who told me he had to spend his own money to work on a Government house that he was going to occupy. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we are the custodians of the people of this country and we speak on their behalf. We are their voice. The police out there are bashed. For some reason, I did not like them because they were throwing teargas at me. Being a preacher on the other hand, I was tempted to say a bad prayer against them. I was telling God how I did not like them, but when we face reality, you see how they live with us. When you raise an alarm at night, they respond. When I drive from here to Kakamega at night, through Nakuru, Burnt Forest and Kapsabet, and it is very cold in Burnt Forest, I find police officers manning the roads at night. You sympathize with them. So, we should unanimously, as a House, legislate to improve their welfare. Actually, this is like a bailout because even when I looked at what was coming out that their allowances were going to be slashed, I knew we were courting trouble. When you slash their allowances, you are simply amplifying corruption. The vice will increase and we will have other criminal activities. These people have to survive. How are they going to survive when they do not have what they need to survive? Hon. Members, through the Speaker, need to totally support our police officers. We should allocate more money for trainings, not just trainings for formality, but training that can bring about change. When they continue through their continuous assessments, we have to see replication of the same, that we are actually putting in money and we can see their code of conduct changing. Some of them operate under a lot of duress. When I meet some of them on the road and they know I am a church man, they say: “Bishop, give us something if you have some offering from church. Give us something small here.” Being a church man, I do not like giving. I like receiving money.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have read and I preach about it very much. When it is about preaching, I really preach about it, but I know that part which talks about those who work in the pulpit. It says that those who work at the pulpit shall eat from the pulpit. It is a catch-22 situation.

Dr. Nyikal says he has not heard about it, but it is in the Bible. So, Hon. Deputy Speaker, we also have to think about the welfare of others. Instead of blanket condemnation, let us think about how we can improve their welfare and their salaries. The SRC should not be thinking about cutting down their salary. Do you ordinarily think of bringing somebody wage down or increasing it? There is a way you can cut costs but maintain somebody’s salary. You cannot talk about scaling it downwards. You have to think about how you maintain or take it upward. If you have an issue with the wage bill, then you have to go around it and find a way to minimize it. As a House, we are the defenders of the Kenyan people. We are their voices. When we go out there, obviously, the Kenyan police are not in good books with the citizenry of this country. They are accused of, mostly, brutality and corruption. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

To end these things, let us look at the police officers’ welfare, make it lucrative, fix it upwards and demand that they change their behaviour. We also want to reduce the suicide missions that are rampant in the police service, where people live under duress and stress.

Thank you, Hon. Bishop Khamala. You, together with the Member for Turkana Central, who is also a clergy, should find time and talk to Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal. He says he has not heard that part of the Bible. You might have to go a little further and tell him that you do not use an ox with its mouth muzzled, so that he can be with you. Let us have Hon. Kitonga, who is also known as Hon. Maanzo.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. This is a very important Motion. All of us here have a police officer taking care of our security. I agree with this Motion. There has to be decent housing for police officers. If you go to most police stations, and especially the areas described here, you will find that police officers live in horrible conditions. The situation gets worse during the rainy season. Most police officers have taken their career as a calling and they do a lot to assist other Kenyans. It is clear that the Government has to make provisions. This House makes budgetary allocations to ensure that the interests of police officers are taken care of, right from their training. Nowadays the police service is attracting graduates. Recently, a young lawyer from Makueni said she was interested in joining the police service. She thought as a lawyer, she would change things for the better. She thought that she would be of great help in terms of intelligence collecting and making proposals from within as to the amendments we can consider as a House. That is a young person. I asked her whether she was willing to earn the sort of salary that was being paid to university graduates who joined the force. Therefore, I encouraged her. I wished that one day she would become the Inspector General of Police. There are people who work because of the interest of serving the nation. At the same time, there are those who are in the force by default. Their tall relatives corrupted someone and they found themselves in the police force because there was no alternative work for them. We are also informed that the qualifications of police officers range from Standard Seven school leavers to university graduates. There has to be a way of harmonising the salary scales and the duties of officers, depending on one’s qualification, to make sure that service delivery improves. There have been incidences of insecurity blamed on police officers, like the case in Makueni County where the residents accused police officers of laxity. In fact, there were people who were breaking into cars. One day, a car belonging to a police officer was broken into and that awakened the police. Police officers can work better if residents share information with the police. The police can achieve their goal of preventing crime. At the same time, their welfare is important. Recently, in Makueni, a police constable shot dead the Deputy Officer Commanding Station (OCS) and fled, leaving behind his riffle. Police officers are armed. They are normal human beings who go through stress. Better terms of service, including enhanced remuneration and The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

improved living standards, could reduce stress amongst police officers. Also, continuous training while at work will help. We should also ensure that police officers are transferred fairly, so that a new entrant is not posted to the furthest part of the country as those related to influential people are posted to places like Parliament Police Station. Every officer should feel that whatever is happening is fair, and that the police force has reformed. With the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, we have experienced serious developments. The police force has since transformed into the National Police Service. Service is to Kenyans and humanity. I believe it should be so, especially now that they have a commission which listens to officers’ complaints and looks into their issues. It would be good that through this service, police officers be represented. We recently heard that the salaries of some police officers were to be reduced. When the NPSC was questioned, they said that they were harmonising the salaries to ensure that some officers were not paid salaries they did not deserve. That answer was not satisfactory. We urge the commission to take care of the welfare of police officers. The commission should not be a source of frustration for police officers. Many Members are aware that police officers were awarded a salary increment some time back, of which 9 per cent has not been paid over the years. Where is that money? Who is keeping it? We need to find it, as a House, and ensure that proper remunerations are given to police officers, so that they can serve this country better. Their lives are at risk at all times. When a crime occurs, they combat. The worst situation is where police officers drop out of the force and join criminal gangs. Those are the gangs that service police officers fear most because ex-police officers know how to use guns very well. They also know how police officers operate. Some of them can use modern technology to even access their radio frequencies and become a danger to their former colleagues. Therefore, we have to treat them well to avoid having many of them exiting the service so that they can serve the country. Police officers should have hope of growing in the force and attaining the highest level possible. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker.

Hon. Deputy Speaker

There is this Member I want to give an opportunity called Hon. Lekumontare Jackson, the Member for Samburu East.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I also want to support this Motion. Police officers have many challenges. When we get problems, we contact them, but we notice that they are not even motivated to do their work. Police officers in ASAL areas have many problems. They are also family people. They need to assist their families, but if they are not taken care of, they will not manage to take care of their families and the security of Kenyans will be compromised. In my constituency, we sometimes get a lot of problems with cattle rustlers. Police officers are supposed to maintain security, but what will motivate them to do their work? So, it is very important. I think this House is supposed to look into the police officers’ welfare. They are not taken care of. There is corruption in Kenya because of the poor salaries that are paid to police officers and their poor living conditions. They ask for little bribes because they are unable to sustain themselves. So, it is very important for us to support this Motion, so that police officers’ welfare can be improved. They live in small houses which cannot accommodate their families and they are unable to construct good houses for themselves. Therefore, what is the purpose of The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

them doing this job? It defeats purpose because they are working but they are unable to sustain themselves and help their families. It is, therefore, necessary for us to relook into their working conditions. Recently, I heard about a policeman who killed his son and tried to commit suicide, but he survived. It is important for us to look into their welfare and see how we can improve it so that the officers can take care of their families. I support this Motion because it will enable police officers to serve Kenyans better. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker.

Hon. Deputy Speaker

Very well. Before I give a chance to the next Member to contribute, let me recognise in the Public Gallery, pupils from Nyaga Primary School, Gatanga Constituency, Murang’a County and Karuri High School, Kiambaa Constituency, Kiambu County. In the Speaker’s Gallery, Santa Ana Calm Waters Primary School, Ruiru Constituency, Kiambu County. The Leader of the Minority Party had indicated that he wants to speak, but his card is not reflecting. So, as he prepares himself, let me give a chance to the lady, Hon. (Ms.) Mwanyanje Mbeyu, Member for Kilifi.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Motion. It is true that police officers have problems. They do not even have salaries, but what we call wages because it is less than Kshs20, 000. They are very important Kenyans and we cannot live without them. These officers have families and some of them are polygamous and need to take care of their children in school. You can find some officers begging for bursaries from Members of Parliament to educate their kids. I used to condemn police officers for being ranked as the worst corrupt, but now I know why. They cannot take care of their families. The kind of houses they live in are pathetic. It is police officers who come up with Swahili words such as, “ kitu kidogo, chai and maji .” Once I was a victim of this. I was going for a meeting and at a police road block, a police officer told me, Mhe, si utuachie maji . I did not understand their language. I had water in my car and I told my bodyguard to give them a carton of water. He started laughing and I did not understand. He told me, Mhe, you did not understand the language. They do not want water. I learnt words like,

and chai from police officers. It is not their fault, but because they are not contented. We hear very many cases of love triangles and suicide among police officers. Their wives are not contented in their houses. Police officers are never at home and they cannot provide for their families. That is why some of their wives have to look for other means of survival. As we pity these officers, let the 12th Parliament bring change for them. I understand some Members here do not have bodyguards, not because they cannot find one, but because they seem to be a burden. You get a bodyguard who does not have a house or food. So, you have to give him Kshs1,000 every evening or the following day. I pity some Members who do not have bodyguards yet. We have a situation of police officers who cannot take anything home and look like beggars. I beg the 12th Parliament to bring change to the welfare of police officers and improve the kind of houses they live in. These should not be incentives, but increasing their salaries from Kshs17,800 to, at least, Kshs50,000 for them to be comfortable and take care of the many Kenyans who need security and their services. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker.

Hon. Deputy Speaker

I must confess that is a little lower… We voted and said that the Leader of the Majority Party and the Leader of the Minority Party should be given preference in speaking. Proceed. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. First, I want to register my congratulations and thanks to Hon. Omar Maalim for bringing this Motion which my colleagues have been supporting and hailing as a very important Motion. I want to start by saying that Kenya has been hailed as one of those countries with a very progressive Chapter on the Bill of Rights. Chapter Four of our Constitution starting from Article 19 all the way to 59 is on the Bill of Rights. Article 41 of the Constitution which talks about labour relations is a right that we all enjoy as Kenyans. However, we must accept that the police service is one of those categories of Kenyans, who have been denied, by operation of Article 24 of the Constitution, the full enjoyment of these rights. They are entitled to reasonable working conditions, but cannot form, join or participate in the activities and programs of a trade union. Any Kenyan can go on strike, but the police service cannot and many other rights which other Kenyans enjoy. The understanding, therefore, was that there must be a way through which as a people we can protect this category of Kenyans, who serve in the disciplined forces where they are required by law not to realise full enjoyment of the basic human rights and the Bill of Rights. I agree with my colleagues that we see a lot of things happening to our brothers and sisters who are in police service like committing suicide and killing each other. This is because their living conditions are deplorable and as a consequence of some failure. I can remember in 2008, we embarked on a process that was supposed to bring this country back to normalcy. One of the agenda items was Agenda Four, which included reforms in the police service. As we discuss this Motion which is restricted to police officers working in Northern Kenya, the failure to recognise police officers and make their lives comfortable is actually a consequence of the stalled process on police reforms. We created commissions. In fact, the people of Kenya decided to create a fourth Arm of Government. We were used to have three Arms of Government, the Judiciary, Legislature and Executive, but the people of Kenya felt that these three Arms of Government were not serving them well and created a fourth one in the name of commissions. We created the National Police Service (NPS), which is chaired by Mr. Kavuludi. You will agree with me that as we speak, this Commission is dead. It is not serving this country in a way that we expected it to work. I do not know whether Kavuludi is convinced that there is value for money that he is giving Kenyans as he sits in that office. That is the problem with us Kenyans. You sit in an office even when you are personally convinced that you are not adding any value. I would like to tell Mr. Kavuludi and his team that the Commission is such an important one. If you realise that you have reached your limit, please, just exit and allow Kenyans to look for another person to serve them as envisaged in the Constitution. The police reforms have completely stalled. The things that you see happening in this country… Sometimes we condemn the police force as a whole, but you should ask yourself: If a police officer can take a gun and shoot a university student or someone’s child in cold blood, is there not something wrong? I will keep on repeating that there must be something that this officer is doing; either he is protesting or there must be something seriously affecting the police officer. I am happy that the person who is chairing the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security is someone I have a lot of respect for. I know Hon. Keynan is someone who is up to the task. He is a sober-minded person. There is this recent problem that is facing the police service. The police officers are suffering in silence. Their bosses are so arrogant. I watched one of their bosses speaking in the media and I realized that he is dismissive. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

He said, “We have trained 10,000 police officers. It does not matter if 1,400 resign.” That kind of attitude is not good. How do you expect the police officers to be motivated to do their work when they watch television and see their boss speak like that? I will move to the issue of salaries that has been talked about. If someone has been awarded a salary, there is no way you can reduce that person’s salary under the excuse that he was wrongly awarded. The person has been paid that salary for some period of time! What is the problem? If someone awarded the salary wrongly, it is that person who should be shown the door first. We need to see this Kenyan who awarded the police officers salaries illegally. By the way, if you are recruiting a graduate into the police force… We encourage that our police service should even have more graduates because we want intelligence also. The police service is not just about carrying a gun and shooting. That is why sometimes they make mistakes. We also need some level of intellect. We need these people to be intelligent. They were put in some grade earning them about Kshs36,000. Imagine waking up one morning to be told that all this time your salary has been wrongly awarded and that it is being reduced from Kshs36,000 to Kshs18,000. After that, you see the chairman of the NPC talking on television like a very ignorant person – more ignorant than an ordinary Kenyan in the street – saying no salary has been reduced only for the police spokesman, on the same day, to appear on another television station saying, “We have reduced the salary because it was wrongly awarded.” Now between the chairman of the NPC and the spokesman of the police, who is telling Kenyans the truth? We must stop this. This bad habit of reducing people’s salary has been brought to this country by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). I know when it affects Members of Parliament every Kenyan claps and hails it. Even if you are my enemy, you cannot have your salary reduced. Once you are given that salary, the best that can happen is to maintain it at that point for a period of time in order to allow harmonisation to take place. Therefore, you cannot give someone a salary and reduce it. Then you get another excuse that there are some people who are now being subjected to tax when the law is very clear that any Kenyan who is disabled, including a Member of Parliament, is not supposed to be subjected to taxation. Now you start taxing police officers who are disabled because there is some corruption within the system. You even start taxing people who are genuinely physically disabled! Why don’t you continue paying as you investigate? Investigation and paying are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes you ask yourself, “What is wrong with the top leadership of our police service?” In fact, the top leadership of the police service needs to be retrained. We need to retrain them. We expected the NPC to vet them. They carried out some exercise purporting to be vetting of police officers, but I am not sure whether they did a good job. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) started very well but along the way, I do not know what has hit them. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, allow me to say two more things regarding the specifics of this Motion and those police officers who are deployed in hardship and risky areas. By the way, most of the police officers we take to these areas are the most inexperienced; those who have just come from college. Sometimes you ask yourself whether we take our sons and daughters to go and die. This is because you take them there with very limited experience. Why don’t you take people who are more experienced to these risky areas? Above all, when you take these police offices to those areas, one thing that you must do is you must motivate them. I know you cannot pay life. No one can pay life but there is need for proper insurance cover, especially for police officers who are being deployed to these risky areas. We need a separate insurance cover for the officers who are deployed to those areas. During the period they are deployed to The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

those areas, they need clear insurance cover. In the event that they lose their lives, those they leave behind – their loved ones – at least can have somewhere to start. I conclude by talking about the benefits we give to our police officers. It is important that we look at the living conditions and medical cover of the police officers. I ask the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security to do two things. One, it should look into complaints that the police officers have registered with regard to their salaries. Two, it should look at the NPC and interrogate it to see if it is still serving the interest of Kenyans and the interests of the police officers. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support the Motion.

We shall have Hon. Mohamed Ali, Member for Nyali. Meanwhile, Hon. Kathuri Murungi, Member for South Imenti, you are proposing an amendment. I would like you to prepare your amendment as Hon. Ali makes his contribution. I will give you the next opportunity so that you can propose that amendment. Hon. Ali, the Floor is yours.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. This is a very important Motion which touches on the police officers. As you can see, Members are touched by the situation on the ground. I want to propose to amend the Motion because this problem cuts across the country. It is not only in northern Kenya or in hardship areas; it is across the country, including my constituency, which is not in northern Kenya or referred to as a hardship area. It would be good if the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) can look at the issues that police officers face across the country. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, my amendment is on the second last line of the Motion. I beg to move: - THAT, the Motion be amended by deleting the words: “who are deployed to serve in Northern Kenya and other hardship areas,” in the second last line and the last line.

We should not specify the region. It should not be in Northern Kenya or hardship areas. I have discussed with the Mover of the Motion. We are totally in agreement that the welfare of all police officers should be looked into across the board; not just in those regions. The reason why I am proposing this amendment is because police officers across the board share tents, tin shacks and mud houses. Their morale is low all the time. That is why even when you go to discuss something with them with a clean mind and heart, they will never be friendly. They share houses, the way Hon. Mohamed Ali said.

My colleague, who is a police officer, shared his frustrations with me. He shares a tin shack with a married man. You know that these people do not go to work at the same time. One must leave the House and the other one is left behind. You can also reason what happens when these guys are left, because a man and a--- I do not want to go into the depth of these issues. Sincerely speaking, if this amendment can be passed, it will be a good thing.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to move that the Motion be amended as follows: The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Do we have a Seconder? Do we need to debate this proposed amendment? What will be up for debate is the amended Motion. If anybody has any further amendment, this is the opportunity. Let us have Hon. Jimmy Angwenyi to talk about the proposed amendment or any further amendment.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Since you have removed that final sentence which refers to Northern Kenya and other hardship areas, we should also delete where the Motion says: “especially those working in Northern Kenya and other high risk and hardship areas.”

Hon. Angwenyi, we have not yet passed the proposed amendment by Hon. Kathuri, but you are free to make a further amendment, in accordance with Standing Order No. 54(3), so that we can leave out any other words you deem are not---

Hon. Members, let us deal with this proposed amendment by Hon. Kathuri. We should either pass or reject it and then we deal with any other amendments that may be moved. Hon. Ngunjiri, contribute on the proposed amendment.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I have a problem with that amendment. My understanding of this particular Motion is that the Mover is asking this House to think about police officers serving in hardship areas. I do not think that it is in contention that we need to do something about police officers as a whole. However, that is not what I understand the Mover of this Motion to be trying to introduce. He is saying that we need to think about police officers who work in hardship areas. So, if you remove that particular aspect and generalise it, we may pass it because we need to do something about police officers as a whole. However, this particular Motion says that police officers working in hardship The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

areas need salary incentives and adequate decent housing. So, removing the part of “Northern Kenya and other hardship areas” is actually changing the entire Motion. We will now be talking about the police force as a whole. That is my point.

What Hon. Ngunjiri is saying is correct. I hope that is the intention of the Mover of the proposed amendment and the owner of the Motion. The Mover of the proposed amendment has intimated that he has consulted the owner of the Motion. They are in agreement. If that is the case, it is their Motion. They are free to deal with it as they wish. If it is your desire that this Motion should apply to the police force generally, then we agree with it.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to add my voice to the contribution of Hon. Ngunjiri. The proposal by Hon. Kathuri changes the purpose of this Motion in its entirety. If we are going to go by that, whether the Hon. Member who sponsored the Motion agrees or not, as a House, we really want to know what the purpose of the Motion was from the beginning. The purpose is very clear. It was to look at the police force in Kenya in its entirety, but there are pockets of trouble that lack security. How are we going to enhance security?

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, further to that, I agree with Hon. Ngunjiri that the contribution of all the Members who have spoken have talked about the general problems within the police force. We agree, as a House, but if we allow that particular amendment to pass, then we shall have changed the purpose of the Motion.

Thank you, Member for Saku. We are all in agreement that if the proposed amendment passes, the tenor of the whole Motion will substantially change. But that is the business of the House and that is why we will deal with it as a House and decide whether we want to change it or retain it the way it was. Therefore, I will now have a seconder so that we can move on and propose the Question.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I stand to second the amendment to this Motion. The reason being, as we look at the police officers, we need to ask ourselves a few questions. Is it true that the amendment is capturing all the problems that the police officers face? When we talk about housing, is it only a problem in the North Eastern part of the country or it cuts across? It cuts across. When we talk about salaries, is it only a problem in the North Eastern region or it cuts across? The little allowances that Hon. Mohamed Ali mentioned that are probably being siphoned by senior officers apply across board. Therefore, this is something that we need to look into and realise that all police officers are affected so that we have an elaborate plan, as a House, to see how we can improve the welfare of the police officers.

All of us in this House and even those out there come to our places of work because we are sure of our security. If our security was not paramount, I am sure none of us will report at our work stations. I come from a place where occasionally we make many emergency calls to the police to respond to incidents of thuggery or theft. Some police officers cannot make it to the scene of crime because they have no transport which cuts across the policeofficers. We need to agree that lack of means of transport affects all the police officers and so when we look for amicable solutions, they should apply to all officers in the security agencies. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset, I am opposed to the amendment. The reason is that if we look at the seventh line, the Motion talks about officers across the country. North Eastern and other hardship areas have unique problems. Problems in Nairobi County are not the ones in Mandera, Turkana or Baringo counties. Therefore, if we introduce any change at this point, the spirit of this Motion will be lost. I, therefore, object to an amendment to it.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I request that in future, considering that I am still injured, when I sit for a long time my foot gets swollen, the Speaker’s office to be giving me an opportunity to make my contribution after the Leader of the Majority Party and the Leader of the Minority Party, then I leave. I have a unique problem.

First, I thank Hon. Omar Mohamed Maalim for bringing a very important and weighty Motion to this House. I only want him to note that we are Members of the National Assembly and the operating term here is “national” so that we stop looking at problems in our unique areas forgetting that they affect the police force all over the country. I just want to make that correction. I wish we could all be working with the knowledge that we are doing so for the greater good of the nation and not only for police officers in our constituencies or in our regions, but even for those working far from us. All of them deserve to be treated better than they are at the moment.

I want to talk about some facts. I have got these facts by talking much to my bodyguard because he and, obviously, all our bodyguards are in the police force. There are certain things I have realised. By the time we get them from the police force to come and work for us, they were living under deplorable conditions. I was told of a very nasty situation where three or four police officers share a house: one lives in the first bedroom and the other one in the second bedroom. However, they both share the living room because it is a little bigger. In fact, it is divided into two rooms by a curtain. We are talking about people with families. Once in a while, people are visited by their spouses. You can imagine a situation where a police officer who has been working for the last six months and has not been able to go home because of the call of duty and one of his colleagues is visited by the wife. There are some certain calls of nature and so you never know what would happen in the middle of the night. The next day, this officer who has a visitor goes out to work and leaves the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

wife with these other three or four officers who have been on duty for six months without a break. That is why you hear, every so often, of situations where police officers shoot each other. Many times, they kill each other because of issues to do with sexual relations with their spouses. It is important that the Government looks into the issues affecting police officers. It is important to note that police officers are not allowed to go out to rent houses. If they were allowed and paid better, they would have been able to get their own decent accommodation. So, they are supposed to stay within designated areas because they can be called on short notice. That is also another fact I have noticed. The other fact is that salaries of members of the NPS are very low.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am dealing with the amendment because the only thing we have done in the amendment is to pull out a portion which is ‘northern Kenya’ but the Motion remains as it was before. I want to be guided. Am I to contribute to the Motion as amended or the amendment only so that we can put it to vote?

Very good. I will go back to where I started and finish there. We are looking at the national picture. The problems facing police officers spread across the country and so we cannot concentrate on a small area. I support the amendment that allows us to discuss the NPS with regard to the whole country, as proposed by Hon. Murungi Kathuri. Thank you.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise on Standing Order No. 54 on amendment to Motions once they have been moved and discussed. In this particular case, Hon. Kathuri said they have discussed with the Mover of this Motion. Like I said in my last contribution, this amendment changes the thrust of the original Motion. If we say we will go by that, then I feel that Hon. Kathuri should bring his own Motion for us to debate in this House and then at some point the two Motions can be combined. Although we will debate this amended Motion, our debate will be in futility because the Motion has been drastically changed and it is completely a different Motion. Thank you.

Hon. Saku, I do not see what was out of order because this is the business of the House. These Motions are owned by this House. You The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

can amend them at any time according to the Standing Orders. At any time before the Question is put, any amendment can be made. That is exactly the procedure we have followed here. That being the case, we shall have the contributions now on the Motion as amended and the first Member on the request list is Hon. Atandi Onunga, Member for Alego Usonga.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Motion as amended. North Eastern is very unique. My knowledge about the police, I talk to a lot of police officers, is such that when junior police officers are in a problem with their bosses, they are normally posted to North Eastern Kenya because it is considered a hostile environment even by the officers themselves. This is a very special region. Most importantly, North Eastern is also the entry point for the dreaded Al Shabaab. When they want to move into Kenya, they go through North Eastern. In my opinion, we need to make a special case for North Eastern Kenya for the reasons that I have cited. Police officers have been abused in this country by the regimes that we have seen. During the last elections, we saw police officers being used to harass, to maim and to kill opponents of the regime. This has extended even to the leadership of the police itself. Since the promulgation of the new Constitution in 2010 and the creation of the NPSC, there have been attempts to professionalise the police force. I was surprised during last year’s election that the Chairman of the NPSC was also involved in campaigns; a man who is supposed to supervise this very important Commission charged with protecting the lives and property of Kenyans. This House needs to fast-track the police reforms. The Leader of the Minority Party who spoke earlier intimated that the process of police reforms has somehow stalled. I would like to call upon His Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya and His Excellency the Rt. Hon. Amollo Odinga to fast-track the police reforms so that this country can have a police service that can attend to the challenges of insecurity in this country. I would also like to join my colleagues who have said that the police need to be accorded proper housing. One of the aspects of the police reforms is the welfare of the police officers. We have police officers who take care of us and most of the time you find that you have to go deep into your pockets to ensure that they are also safe, well rested and well fed. This clearly needs to be the work of the Government and this House to ensure that it is done. Presently, the NG-CDF takes care of some aspects of security. I propose in reference to the police housing that the Budget and Appropriations Committee considers placing additional resources on NG-CDF so that we are able to take care of the police housing within our constituencies. Presently, I know most Members have attempted to address the challenges facing the police in their various constituencies by way of allocating part of the limited resources that we have within the NGCDF. If we could make a special provision for the police from the resources within the NG- CDF, specifically to take care of the police housing, then, in a way we would be addressing this challenge of police welfare. Otherwise, it will be in vain to continue to pass Motions in the House which, in most cases – I really doubt whether they get the attention they need – I hope the Executive is looking at how we pass these Motions. We are seeking to address some of the issues we raise here. That is an issue that I also wanted to check and see whether these things will work. For the immediate results, let us as a House find a way through which we can ensure we address the challenges of police housing and welfare to the level of the constituencies. In this respect, we will make some progress. As it is, I do not think the Government is doing what it takes to ensure the challenges facing the police and the police service are being addressed. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I support this Motion. The challenges of the police are everywhere in this country. Right now, as you may be aware, the police are somehow on a go slow. In my constituency, for instance, you will find that the police are not being responsible for the challenges of insecurity. There are certain sections of my constituency where reports have been taken to the police about theft, robbery and many other cases in the constituency, but the police’s response and attention is lacking. One of the ways to address and motivate the police across the country is to ensure that we address some of these challenges that we have – housing, welfare, resources, wages, etceteras so that we can have a police force that can respond to the needs of Kenyans. Lastly, I would like to see a police force that is not political; a police force that does not answer to the whims of those in power; a police force that will be resistant and would not be very fast to maim and be used to kill supporters of the opponents. Then, we will be having a country that is really addressing the needs of Kenyans. The Constitution does not envisage a police force that is working contrary to what we expect. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is Order…. It is a point of information. I want to inform my learned friend that he is triangulating on a wrong point. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I rise to support this Motion. I want to say something that was said by Hon. Iringo earlier. We have these Private Members’ Motions every Wednesday: Throughout the year and throughout the five-year terms. Very few of them are implemented. We need to look at this as a House and see whether it is time well spent. We have a Committee on Implementation. Before we even really blame the Executive, we must ask what our Committee on Implementation is doing. This same Motion or a very similar one has been in this House before. If the Committee on Implementation was working, we would have expected that what has been passed is implemented. A schedule of the Motions that have been approved by this House should be prepared so that when a Member prepares a Motion similar to another one that has been approved; he can be told that a similar Motion has been passed. Therefore, we can instead push for its implementation. That is extremely important; The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I support this Motion because the problem of the police, as captured in the amendment, is actually across the country. It is as if we do not realise how important police officers are in our lives and in the life of the nation in terms of internal security. In my mind, they are more important in maintaining internal order and dealing with internal threats than the other armed forces that deal with external threats. External threats may occur once in a while, but internal security problems occur almost every day. I think we need to address that aspect.

Without the police, we cannot have governance. We cannot even try to fight corruption, if we do not have a police force that is working. Who will investigate all the matters that come? If we have a police force that is not contended, it is a waste of time. Even in our economic development, if we do not have internal security, people cannot invest or go about their daily business activities. Obviously, investors will not come to our country. So, we must start to see the police as a very important agency in our country. We must appreciate their role in the general governance, development and economic prosperity of the country. If we do not see it that way, we will not address the problem. We seem to have realised this because while making the new Constitution, we restructured the police services. We established the National Police Service and gave it the Inspector-General with two deputies to be in charge of the general duty police service and the Administration Police Service. We created the National Police Service Commission because we thought that the day-to-day running of police activities in terms of service, promotion and salaries would be under the service. We have a whole Commission in place, but nothing has changed. We even said there will be an oversight. We created the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA). How have we benefited from all these institutions? The most important aspect of any institution or organisation is the human resource that carries out its functions. If the welfare of police officers is not taken care of, all these other reforms will not take us anywhere. I need not to repeat. The salaries are paltry. The allowances are not even the same. If you look at the police officers that we work with, and the police officers that are working as security to other officers in Government, there is a difference. They are not being treated the same. If you look at the housing conditions of police officers all over the country – I do not want to repeat – people are having gory examples, but those are the realities. They make it look like fiction to us, but that is the reality for police officers. People living in the conditions that have been described here cannot be psychologically stable. So, it is not surprising that every now and then, we hear of police officers turning their arms on themselves or their bosses. I do not think we should try them without testing whether they are mentally stable. It is because of their living and working conditions. How can we trust people with arms yet we know that they are so frustrated? They are not psychologically stable. During the 2015/2016 Financial Year, a lot of money was set aside in the Budget to take care of the issue of housing for police officers. To date, we do not know what happened or why the houses were not built. New police lines were to be established but to date nothing has happened. The current problems are that there may be errors in payment of some police officers, but there are regulations on how deductions should be made. You cannot make deductions until it becomes impossible for people to live. These are things that can be done gradually until the amounts due are fully recovered. We are doing this to a force that has very limited labour relations flexibilities. They cannot go on strike; they cannot join any labour union or demonstrate. This is a frustration we must not visit on police officers. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I do not have to belabour this point but just to say that the Executive has to look into this issue. The police reforms we started must be taken seriously, so that we have a police force that is contented in order to ensure that they serve Kenyans well. We should create an environment where we see the police as a service to us, and not some sort of enemy to us. With those remarks, I support.

Hon. Members, we will try to balance the requests on both sides of the House. We shall now have Hon. (Ms) Cheruiyot Jesire, the Member for Baringo, who will be followed by Hon. Mohamed Kolosh from the other side of the House.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this amendment because police officers who are giving us security are undergoing a lot of trouble in this country. The Motion about pay-cut, which was discussed, and I hope to contribute to, is illegal but the amendment that has been proposed has enlightened us. It shows that it is not only in Northern Kenya where police officers suffer. I come from Baringo, which is also a hardship and high-risk area. Recently, we heard of police officers being killed as they were serving Kenyans – when they were taking exams to schools in Kapedo. So many officers have died while pursuing cattle rustlers, but nobody has been talking about them. I can tell you that police officers go through a lot. There are people we have sometimes thought they were just kept there to do what they are doing. It is like they are not civil servants. While I was working with the Civil Service in the Ministry of Health, we used to be categorized. Those of us who worked in hardship areas benefited in getting some incentives or risk allowances as compared to those who worked in non-hardship areas. The same should apply to police officers because they are serving this nation. They cannot be civil servants directly, but the service they give is about humanity. I support the amendment to the Motion which seeks to remove the specific part of this country. We can now look at officers who are deployed in all parts of this country. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I know it is easy for all of us especially the political class to condemn police for their brutality and the way they handle some of our activities, especially demonstrations. It is true that we cannot condone behaviours of police officers. Instead of protecting lives and properties, they turn not any better than the hooligans who attack. We saw county commanders of police throwing stones at demonstrators. That said, the conditions of the police and especially those in hardship areas are pathetic. All schools in Wajir County are closed. This is not because there are no schools, children or absence of teachers, but because of insecurity. Last month, we debated how we can employ locals and special teachers for areas that not everybody can go. This probably informs us why we need special incentives not just for the police, but for all the professionals who serve in those hardship areas. As a country, we have tried to meet the United Nations (UN) requirements of the ratio of one police officer to 450 persons, but we concentrated a lot on the quantity instead of the qualities. We employ over 10,000 police officers every year. How do we train, arm, equip, protect and house them? Those are important issues that the Government has overlooked. It is important if we have protection, housing and salaries of all officers reviewed. That is what we The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

should aim at. We do not want to zero down on certain areas, but we must also appreciate the diversity of this country. It is just a month ago that an entire police station was deserted and the police officers ran away for their lives not because they feared their attackers, but because the terrorists who attacked the station were more equipped than them. This is actually something that is worrying. The station was manned by seven people and the attackers were over 50. The officers were carrying AK-47 guns while the terrorists were carrying sophisticated weapons. We must arm our uniformed officers in general to enable them protect us and our boundaries. We cannot assume, as a country that all will be well when the terrorists who attack everyday have known the capability of our officers and are attacking us right, left and center, without fearing our officers. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, of course, there are cultural issues that affect the morale of our officers, especially when their dignity and how they feel is not looked into. I, therefore, support this Motion and urge this House without discriminating and without seeing that we are supporting one part of country more than the other, that the Government expedites this housing and salary increments and stop threatening graduate officers. We know all graduate officers might not all fight in the field but we should also encourage them with their intelligence and stop the notion that their salaries will be deducted. I, therefore, rise to support this Motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I stand to support this Motion as amended. I came when it had already been amended. Kenya is not the same but the fact remains that we are seeing the conditions of the police force. Before I mention about housing and salary, there are things that are not in order. Some of those police officers do not have adequate uniform. They do not even have enough boots. Most of the weapons they have are defective. If the weapon you have is defective, how will you actually protect Kenyans? Most of them do not even have uniform and weapons that can even protect them from harm. In other nations, the most important people are the police because they provide security for more than 450 citizens. If you are providing security to citizens who most of them are rich, tall and short and have everything they need while you do not have enough salary, uniform and housing, then where will you get that spirit? If your own conditions are unfair and your own salary cannot sustain you, then how will you manage to protect civilians? Police force has been given many bad names including corrupt and many more. It is not their problem. Let us take an example of Members of Parliament. The reason why most Members of Parliament are not in this House is because some things are not in order. Maybe they have problems in their own constituencies or personal problems which they would like to attend to because they are also human beings. The same thing happens also in the police force. Hon. Speaker, I wonder what is happening with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). We need to be critical as Members of Parliament. Every time SRC is given opportunity to review salary, they only deduct them. I have never heard of a situation where they have increased salaries. I think SRC has mistaken the word “review” to mean “reduce” because they are good at reducing salaries. We have to analyze very well and tell them the word “review” means to increase and not reduce. Kenyans have suffered because of SRC. I have police officers in my area, Northern Kenya. I want Hon. Members to understand that officers working in Northern Kenya are really suffering. Most of the areas there are very insecure. The communities living there and Al Shabaab are well informed and trained. They can kill anyone anytime. They know the terrain of that place. So, when you take someone’s child The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

who has been living in Nairobi to Northern Kenya or a place like Turkana, he or she is killed. We need to motivate officers who have decided to go and serve Kenyans in such areas. That is why they leave the Police Force and join Al Shabaab because they get paid well. They go there and become suicide bombers. So, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are all protected by the police, even us Members of Parliament. If we do not provide incentives to our own bodyguards, they might turn to be our enemies. I am talking about our bodyguards, but what about the other ordinary Kenyans? Police officers have very poor housing in those areas we are talking about. Even the Government arms are not secure. This is because they are kept in semi-permanent houses. The

could easily attack and take the guns. We are telling the Government to secure its weapons before it secures the police officers. Why does the Commission employ professional Kenyans if it does not have enough money? The reason why we go to school is so that we can acquire skills and improve on our careers. Those officers with degrees and have decided to join the Police Force are not desperate. In the Police Force, we need people who are informed. For someone to write a statement for an MP, they have to be informed. He or she must have papers. But why should you underpay them? So, for us to ensure that the police officers are motivated and they offer services to Kenyans in the right manner, they must be paid adequate salaries, probably, even more than that of MPs. There is no problem with that because there has even been clamor to have the MPs’ salaries reduced. Let it be reduced to their satisfaction. We do not care because we are sacrificing. We did not come here because of salary. We are here out of sacrifice and to represent our people.

So, I urge the Executive to stop corruption. It is better we secure funds and ensure we pay police officers enough salary and provide them with adequate housing, uniform, water and electricity. This is because they are human beings. Before they protect other Kenyans, let them be protected, motivated and empowered. If we do not empower them, how will they serve other Kenyans? They are the implementers of our law and so, they bring order. If they themselves do not have order, how will they bring order in the nation? If they do not have enough salary, housing or uniform, then it means their house is not in order. How will they bring order in a nation if they are not in order themselves? It is in order for us to agree as a House, whether under affirmative action or on humanitarian grounds, police officers serving in hardship areas… Even those in Nairobi are very insecure because all the criminals are in Nairobi. You will find those working in Nairobi being insecure 24 hours. We have lost officers just near here not even two kilometers away. We need to provide adequate salaries to police officers. So, I urge Members of Parliament and the Executive, for order to be in this nation, let us improve the living conditions of the police officers, especially those serving in hardship areas because they have been losing lives all the time. I support.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I thank Hon. Maalim for moving this Motion. It is very important and I urge the Members to support it because I know majority of us here have got relatives working as police officers. We have visited them in their houses and have seen the conditions under which they live. We are not only requesting for housing for the police officers. We all know their salaries. Imagine a policeman earning a gross salary of Kshs47,000. It is peanuts considering the life The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

standard in this country. So, other than housing, their salaries need to be looked into. One of the President’s Big Four Agenda, is housing. That being the case, our President and Government ought to incorporate housing for policemen in that perspective. I know majority of policemen will need to improve their working conditions. I have visited so many police stations and their working areas are not good at all. They do not even have access to electricity! I would like the House to request the Government to ensure that where there are police stations and camps, there must be electricity. We all know that they also experience a lot of challenges. Immobile police cannot enforce law and order and so we need vehicles for them. I know we have vilified them many times, but they are doing a lot of corruption because of the peanuts they earn. So, I support this Motion and thank you very much.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me a chance to contribute to this Motion. Police officers are among public servants who are poorly paid and maintained. I had a chance to visit a relative of mine who lives in some tent near the country bus stop. I found that he was staying with his wife and another officer who also has a wife in that one roomed tent. So, two policemen were living with their wives in the same room. So, at times, they may have to compete on how they perform. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, what a horrible situation to be put in! Just imagine that in that room where you are staying, Angwenyi is brought there with his wife to stay with you. Will you be a husband? Will she be a wife? Those days, most of the police officers are young. They are not like Angwenyi. When you go away, they may be attracted to the other young person and, therefore, mess up homes. A policeman earns Kshs17, 000 per month and a house allowance of Kshs3,000 per month. Where in Kenya can you get good accommodation at Kshs3,000 per month. Where in Nairobi or Mombasa for example? You cannot even get a bedsitter because it goes for more than Kshs10,000 per month. So, it means you use all your salary and the so-called house allowance to get accommodation for your family. How will you feed them?

This problem is country-wide. I know that those people who are sent to hardship areas have additional problems. There is a country-wide problem of poor remuneration The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

and accommodation for police officers. Whether in Nairobi, Kisii, Murang’a or elsewhere, they are getting a very raw deal. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) had reduced our salaries. I wish they had given that amount to the police so that they could be better remunerated. In current times, with the inflation and high cost of living, a policeman should not earn less than Ksh50,000. If he is not housed, he should not be given less than Ksh20,000 for housing. Then we can look at their activities. Sometimes, when a policeman tells you nisaidie na chai, he really means it because he does not have money. If you give him Ksh100, he feels happy because it can make a difference in his life for that day. Do we want to subject those people to those kinds of conditions? Those are the people who give their lives to save the lives of Kenyans and die on our behalf? The Police Force maintains peace in the country and if we subject them to those dire conditions, will they defend us? We say the Police Force is corrupt. What do we expect when we pay somebody Ksh3,000 for housing and house rent is more than Ksh10,000 per month. He will have to look for other ways; he is a human being. This country is developing quite fast and for the development agenda to be achieved, we must remunerate and take care of our Police Force thoroughly. We have security officers who are assigned to most Members of Parliament (MPs). They have to provide for their accommodation because they cannot afford using their salaries. I know areas like North Eastern, parts of Baringo, Turkana, Pokot and Mt. Elgon are special cases. We should approve this Motion and the MP should prepare a Bill which we will pass and ask the Committee on Implementation to make sure that, that Act is implemented.

. You know we have power to do that. The Budget can be brought here and when we see the allocation to the Police Force is not adequate, we can return it to the National Treasury and tell them to speak with us first before bringing it back here. I am sorry to say this as the Deputy Leader of the Majority Party. But, we must take care of Kenyans and especially our police officers who take care of the security and safety of Kenyans. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Hon. Members, you will all get a chance. I will be fair to both sides of the House, considering the time one has come, gender, seniority as well, and those who have not spoken for a while among many other things. I will make sure I am as fair as possible. Hon. Martin Owino.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I will be very brief because most Members have alluded to what I was going to say. As a new Member, what worries me most is that most Motions passed here are never implemented. This is because we debate and those who are affected, like in this case the Police Force, are looking up to this House to help them with what they go through. However, it is oxymoron to expect police officers to maintain peace when they do not have peace within themselves and where they live. In fact, even transport for them is a mess. Most of the times, they borrow cars from other departments in order to discharge their duties.

I tend to agree with Hon. Agwenyi that, maybe, the Budget and Appropriations Committee can help us on this one because I wonder what percentage in the security docket, is the police service accrued. This is very important for us. I know the activity concerning the other armed forces may include Al Shabaab and other areas. But, most of the security work is done by the police officers. We need to look into this and why it is not implemented. Allow me to say that in my constituency Ndhiwa, I am trying as much as I can to use my little National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) to renovate and build more houses for police officers. If there is no channel of funds for this activity, then we should increase NG- The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

CDF so that we can help. This is because when things go wrong in our constituencies; it is the MP who is asked, including the police officers, who look up to MPs for help. So, this will be another avenue to help them, if the other one is a big animal. Let us use this channel so that, we can help our police officers. I tend to disagree on the issue of corruption. Anybody who can take Kshs200 illegally can also take Kshs200,000 or Kshs200,000,000. In fact, poverty is not a licence for corruption. There is an old woman who was the poor of the poorest, but she donated two coins. As much as their conditions are deplorable, it is also fair to say that we have to get rid of corruption in the Police Force. We have to stand for this as a House to make sure it is done. For those who are talking about hardship, it is not only anchored on harsh weather, insecurity and others. To me, hardship for the forces is enshrined in living standards and equipment. In fact, sometimes, when you go to a police station, even the chairs they sit on are full of cockroaches because they are not maintained. Their welfare is important to us. I tend to believe that this can also go to the education of their children and giving them proper medical cover as well as appropriate insurance, especially, for those who are in high risk areas. However, all police officers are facing different risks and therefore, we have to look into their insurance as well. Lastly, I would like to donate some of my time to Hon. Were, but I do not know whether that works here. Let the Committee on Implementation look into this so that today’s debate becomes the last debate for the police officers once implementation is done. I support this Motion. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me a chance to contribute to this important Motion. I stand to support it. A police officer’s first order of business is to serve and protect. Police officers play a very central role in the law enforcement system. They monitor criminal activity, respond to emergency calls when necessary, investigate crimes and even testify in court as and when necessary. That said, police officers are human beings and we have seen the structures that they live in. I cannot even call them houses because they are just structures. Police officers need the basics. They need a decent house over their heads. They need decent houses where they can have a quality family environment. Most of all, they also need a decent salary. Police officers protect us, but who protects them and their families? You have seen the structures that police officers sleep in. I said I will not call them houses. Some of them even share the structures. You will find three or four officers sharing one structure. For example, if one of them has a spouse, that becomes a psychological torture for the rest of the officers. Overtime, it becomes very dangerous for the officer who shares the structure with those other officers. We need the police officers’ incentives to be seriously considered. They should be reviewed also to motivate them. Those people who have studied human resource management know that if you motivate staff, they work even harder. If you motivate police officers, they will work harder for this country. They will stop demanding kitu kidogo from suspects. They will even stop taking little monies from the traffic offenders and stop destroying criminal evidence. Sometimes, they do that for money purposes. Some of the police officers even work with the criminal gangs. They will stop all those things if they are given the motivation to work for this country. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

We, as a House, need to be serious when it comes to the issue of discussing Motions or Bills. Once they are discussed, can we follow them and ensure that they are implemented? We should stop being a House of kusema na kusema . We need to be a House of kusema na kutenda. Can we ensure that we follow up those issues so that the Motion on police officers and any other Motion that is tabled in this House is implemented? Lastly, the police officers in any country – I am speaking of Kenya here – need to be independent. They need to be a police force that works for the people of the country, and not for the current regime that is there to use to kill and throw teargas at supporters of the Opposition. They need to work for the people so that the people can also be motivated as we do right now, to fight for them. I support this Motion. As I have said, let us ensure that what we have discussed here is fully implemented. The police need to live in decent houses and be paid good salaries so that we can motivate them.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. Before I contribute to the Motion, I would like to support the sentiments of my colleagues – that, we need to implement the Motions we have been passing in this House. I remember very well in the last Parliament, we had almost the same Motion. I do not know what really happened. So, we should be implementing every Motion that is passed by this House. In supporting the Motion, my colleagues earlier on said that Kenya is different. I agree with that. But I want to say that a police officer in Northern Kenya is the same as a police officer in Nairobi. They need to be treated and remunerated in the same way. They need to have houses and not structures, as Hon. Florence has said. Those people live in pathetic situations. Some of them stand on the road for seven hours. Whether it is raining or sunny, he is there throughout. He has nowhere to sit and nothing to eat. When you see them walking on the road, even the dressing and the berets they have on their heads are weather-beaten. You cannot know if it is black or white. The shirts they put on are supposed to be blue, but their colour has changed. Why can we not now look after those officers? The officers we are talking about are in the junior ranks. They have nobody to look after them. They protect the 50 million Kenyans. Who is going to protect those officers? It is the laws we make in this House that will protect those officers. We need to remunerate them properly because some of them stagnate in one grade for more than 20 years. What happens? Why really? Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you must be surprised that those who were attached to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in the last elections have not been paid to date. If they are paid, that money does not reach the junior officers. Where does that money go? Then we say that those officers are taking Kshs200 or Kshs300 from anybody on the road. Why should they not take? We need to tell the senior officers and their bosses that they need to give them what is required of them. We are talking of the junior police officers who protect us and who are supposed to protect our properties. We are talking of building our economy. We cannot build our economy when our security is not properly taken care of. This security is taken care of by the junior police officer who is supposed to be taken care of properly. He is supposed to be housed by the Kenya Government. He is supposed to have a decent bed and is also supposed to have his children going to better schools. Even if they are given the same salary as mine, I would not mind. Let them get proper allowances whenever they are working. I support and thank the Member who brought this Motion to the House. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity. I wish to contribute in support of the Motion. Like any other worker, one needs to be motivated. The police officer needs very good insurance cover for their safety. A police officer needs a very good salary and proper housing. Actually, I visited an Administration Police (A) camp in my constituency, and I was surprised until it forced me to look for some funds. This is because three families were sharing one room. We should even start from Parliament, which most of the Members can see. Just go to the gate of the National Assembly. You see when it rains and Members are coming in, the police officers there are rained on as they open the gate for us. When it is hot, they are exposed to a lot of heat. So, I urge the management of the National Assembly to start by putting a shade so that our security officers are well covered. Secondly, we are the beneficiaries of security, including the ones which we have. Even the Kshs22,000 allowance that the National Assembly pays them is so little. Sometimes, we are in the remote areas and they need to go and check on their families in town. So, an improvement should start with us. There have been frustrations and the Government has not done very well. During the demonstrations, I saw police officers deployed from Lamu to contain demonstrators in Nyanza or Nairobi. They would sleep in their vehicles. They did not even have clothes to change. Such people can turn against you. We want a comprehensive programme from the Government, in which the officers are treated like any other employee. If we do that, we will be assured of our safety. Police officers are also parents and we need to encourage them by putting up very good houses for them. They also need to produce other Weres in future. You cannot bring up a Were if you are trying to do so in a non-conducive environment. I support the Motion. I wish the police officers would behave. Today, we are in solidarity in supporting their welfare. When it comes to discharge of duty, we want them to serve Kenyans with a lot of dignity and neutrality so that we get quality performance. We want them to be paid well.

I was to give a chance to Hon. (Ms.) Chebaibai and many others. I am informed that the Mover has to be called to reply. There is normally a very gracious occasion where the Mover donates some of his minutes to colleagues. Because of time, I will call the Mover to reply. If he is gracious enough, he can donate some of his minutes to his colleagues. Let us have Hon. Omar.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I will start by thanking my colleague, Hon. Omar for giving me the two minutes. I come from a constituency where insecurity is quite high. Policemen in Turkana County, and particularly in Loima where I come from, live in very inhumane conditions. They face a lot of challenges including the transport element. I do not think the lower cadre officers get training for them to even understand the right methods of gathering intelligence from within the constituency and without. I want to join my colleagues in asking this House to consider giving the police adequate housing this time round. In my constituency, I have prioritised the construction of police housing through the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF). Because security is our function, we should increase the allocation for security under the NG-CDF so that The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker and Hon. Omar for giving me this opportunity. I will be very brief because much of what I had intended to say has been said by my able colleagues. The only issue that I wanted to raise in less than one minute is that, to be honest, the entire Police Force in this country is suffering. I come from Migori County. Along the border of Kenya and Tanzania, we have very few police. There is no housing at all. The level of crime is also sophisticated. The salaries of those men and women need to be increased to attract capable minds that can counteract the nature of criminals that we are witnessing in Kenya today. I support the Motion.

Thank you so much. First of all, the policemen should be respectable, disciplined and ethical because we are passing this Motion. I urge my fellow Members that what we should do now is use our NG-CDF, like I have done, to build houses for them. We can then pass this Motion and ask the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to review the salaries of our policemen. That is all we want to do. Use our NG-CDF to do that, but then SRC should review the salaries of our colleagues, brothers and sons in the Police Force.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support this Motion with a small rider. First, it should apply nationally. The police are guided by the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) so it is national. The hardship of the police knows not the hardship areas only. k Second, the NPSC has failed and that is why this Motion has been tabled. It is their duty to negotiate with the SRC for the salaries in terms of both the hardship allowance and proper housing. May this Motion be forwarded to them so that they can properly undertake their duty and wake up from their slumber.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. As we talk about the Police Force and its weaknesses, we are dealing with the basic The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

needs of the police, namely, their human rights. They have a right to housing, good employment, salaries, food, clothing, education and everything else. Because that right is there and not many people want to become policemen because their image is so wrong--- There is a lot of violence within the Police Force itself because the policemen are killing themselves and their families. Their frustrations are everywhere. They cannot live a better life because they are frustrated by the whole system.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the Hon. Members for accepting that the police officers play a very critical role in Kenya. I also want to thank you for accepting that the National Police Service Commission and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission should provide salary incentives and adequate decent housing for police officers.

I also want to take this opportunity to put the National Police Service Commission on notice that they should do what Hon. Otiende has said. They should take their work seriously and negotiate for the welfare of police officers in Kenya.

DESIGNATION AND GAZETTMENT OF AREAS AND STREETS FOR DEMONSTRATIONS AND PICKETING

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for guiding me. I beg to move the following Motion: THAT, aware that Article 37 of the Constitution guarantees every person the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities; noting that there is need to guarantee that the enjoyment of rights and fundamental freedoms by any individual should not The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

prejudice the rights and fundamental freedoms of others; noting that demonstrations and picketing in cities and major towns in the Country, particularly in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu have on many occasions resulted in destructions, loss of lives and property, public disorder, and creation of an unfavourable business environment; noting that the rights and freedoms are not unconditional because the Government has a duty and responsibility to ensure maintenance of peace and public order, and protection of the rights, life and property of all its citizens; this House resolves that the Government should designate and gazette specific areas and streets for demonstrations and picketing with a view to ensuring that individuals enjoy their rights and freedoms as enshrined in the Constitution without infringing on the freedoms and rights of others.

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to expose what happens when we are demonstrating and picketing out there. I want to notify this House that between January 2017 and November 2017, people in this country demonstrated 175 times. Half of last year, 2017, we were busy either demonstrating or picketing. What is the issue about this? The demonstrations in Kenya are characterised by violent and that is known. When there is violence, people are armed with guns, crude weapons and slings, which are very popular here. There is looting and mugging everywhere. There is also destruction of property and lives are lost. One of our Members of Parliament was injured here in the morning. It happened within an area where demonstration was taking place in an orderly manner.

What is the effect in our country when we are demonstrating and picketing in a manner that is not in order? Those are the effects. I want to give an example of the tourist industry. When we block our roads, close international airports, people do not go to work and schools do not operate because teachers are at home, sick people do not go to hospital because one is trying to fight for his or her right, does the one who fails to attend his or her normal duties lack rights? That is the question. It is high time we sobered up. Look at what happened just the other day. Our leaders portrayed maturity when they greeted one another and created order in this country. What is the responsibility of this House? It is to come up with rules and regulations which should adhere to what our leaders are portraying. If it is left out there, we will run astray.

The economy of this country relies on tourism. When we block our airport, visitors do not come. Our hotels are also affected. We have noticed hotels recording zero admission. A good example is Wild Park Hotel in Laikipia. It has recorded zero admission in many occasions because somebody is trying to fight for his or her right. We lose a lot of money for this country. Impala Park in Kisumu was almost closed because somebody was fighting for his or her right. We should be orderly when we are doing what the law allows. People have lost lives. Article 27 of the Constitution allows everybody right to life. Why should an innocent individual lose his or her life because I want my right? It is not fair. There is too much destruction when we are out there running up and down. We come to this House to fight for budget for development, especially for our roads. But when we are demonstrating, we burn our tarmac which is very expensive. We lose those roads. We also uproot our railway lines and billions of taxpayer’s money is spent on the same. This is not fair.

We are complaining about street lights. We have just finished discussing a security matter. This officer wants to work when there is light. Somebody vandalises the same light as he or she is trying to look for his right. Are we being fair to ourselves? We are not. When we block the airport or the port, let us remember they are used by foreigners. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

May I come closer home. Let us assume that somebody is going abroad using a foreign plane. I will not mention any name. You have paid for your expensive ticket because you are going to United States of America (USA). If you are two, a wife and husband, you spend Kshs400,000 and then people block the road because of their rights and you miss the flight. You have paid that country that money and you have to pay again because the plane has left and yet you wanted to go. You have to pay. You have robbed yourself and your country because of you trying to fight a simple right which you would have done in an orderly manner. It has reached a time when we should have order when we are demonstrating or picketing for our rights. As we demonstrate, we should remember what happened to Kasarani Stadium. A very expensive stadium was vandalised and things were stolen in a single day in the name of someone looking for his or her rights. We need order and it is through order that we and the economy will benefit.

The private sector should not be left un-considered when we are trying to look for our rights. Just the other day as we were seated here, Cardianal Otunga Plaza was vandalised behind our backs and yet we are law makers. Are we making any law? We need to have order. How do we have that order? We should come up with designated areas for picketing and demonstrations. If we do that, we will be at par with people in the developed world who are orderly.

From that talk, did anyone take stock and quantify what happened as we were running up and down. It is important to have a glance and see what happened. Allow me to read some statistics to expose what happened and what we should stop doing.

Trends and Insights for Africa (TIFA) was busy looking at the negative effects that occurred. It wrote a TIFA, 2017 Report that can be found in the library or elsewhere. It recorded that for the finance sector, a single bank lost Kshs166,722 every day. That is quantifiable; it is on record and it can be referred to. A newspaper vendor, when we demonstrate or picket, does not work. What is the effect of that on them? Each vendor loses Kshs10,000 per day. The Report goes ahead to show the effect of a demonstration on a boda boda individual. On average, they lose about Kshs5.0000 each per day when they are prevented from working. That is because we have blocked roads doing all sorts of things. Hawkers, another strong part of the economy of this country, lose Kshs3,000 every day when we demonstrate and prevent them from working.

An average hotel in the CBD loses around Kshs150,000 per day when they close as a result of demonstrations. The food rots and people cannot get in to eat. Before I leave that, let me indicate what happens to the forex bureaus where we go to change our currency. They lose Kshs60,000 on average. There is a more worrying one here. When the 8th August 2017 presidential elections were nullified, in a single day, the Nairobi Securities Exchange was affected. It lost Kshs50 billion that day. That is captured on record. We can see what we have done to our economy. Can we be orderly? Yes, we can.

That is a tabulation of who was affected by the demonstrations. What is the emerging total? Allow me to quote again. Capital Markets Authority Report of 2017 is well known. It says that we lost Kshs900 billion in total in a single year and yet, we are crying as we try to look for Kshs200 billion out there. We lost almost a trillion! Are we not shooting ourselves in the foot? I leave the answer to this honourable House. With respect to Article 37, let me pose another question. Can we do our business? That is known. Again, has anybody else tried to do business? The answer is yes. What happened? Let us pick one example - the United Kingdom, our good role model. When they found out that they were not benefiting when running up and down haphazardly, they came up with a law in 2005. One cannot demonstrate or picket around Parliament, Downing Street, Palace or Westminster or any other area which would hinder the wellbeing and development of that country. It is on The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

record. You can google it. Are they doing better? The answer is 100 per cent yes. I heard the other day that even if you say sorry 1,000 times, it remains one. They are now benefitting. Maybe, one would wonder, “Was it only that?”Allow me to give an example of Mr. Tan Kin Lian, a CEO in Singapore. When that country refused to respect the private sector, those people went to the Speaker’s corner and picketed there for days. That was just the other day, in 2008. They picketed until their cry was heard. Sobriety came and their economy started to grow. What is the economy of Singapore? I leave that answer to hon. Members. Sweden is another one. In Sweden, they have put laws and regulations on what to do at designated places. One of it is the designated area for picketing and demonstration. It is high time we got order and do things soberly, with a spirit of togetherness. Spain and Italy are other good role models. The list continues. Maybe one would ask: Is it happening in Africa? The answer again is yes. What do we do? We go to Uganda. What is happening in Uganda, our neighbour, and a small country? In Uganda, there are areas where you cannot demonstrate or picket. Go to the Parliament in Kampala. You cannot demonstrate or picket there. They have left that place for the entire country to operate normally. What are they doing to their international airport? You cannot go to block the road heading to Entebbe International Airport. You cannot picket there. You allow the country to move. In the High Court where all the country’s matters and affairs are carried out, you cannot demonstrate or picket there. All those countries have been able to do the same. Why have we been left behind? Have they lost because of being orderly? They have not lost. If anything, they have gained a lot. What I have talked about does not infringe Article 24 of the Constitution, especially paragraphs (d) and (a). Those paragraphs give room for other individuals’ rights to be protected. It is high time we went back and thought of how we can protect our economy and the people so that we can live in harmony. This will happen if we allow areas of demonstration, picketing and doing all manner of things which affects our economy and people.

I know people may think that it is not in order to restrict. However, it is through restriction that we get order. For instance, I cannot come without my tie, in this honourable House. It is an order which has been borrowed from elsewhere and it is working. Let us borrow orders and regulations. Even our Constitution and Standing Orders are borrowed from elsewhere and they are working and are doing well to us. I think it is in order for this House to humbly accept my request and support this Motion so that we get soberness and order.

Hon. John Paul, you have two options because time is up. You have the option of standing and bowing and, therefore, the Motion will have been seconded, but you will retain the opportunity to speak when the Motion comes next. If you stand and bow, the Motion will be seconded, but your right to speak to the Motion will be retained. The other option is, if you do not second, the Session ends and we pick up next time.